NR | 1h 29m | Cop Drama | Aug. 30, 2024
But Boll is notable as a bad director. He has a curious knack for creating abominable movies that will, nevertheless, somehow manage to hold your attention. Part of the problem is that he’s got European cinematic style tastes. Meaning extreme slowness; realism and naturalism to the point of cross-eyed boredom for Americans.
Mismatched Partners
The movie opens with an over-prolonged documentation of world-weary NYPD homicide detective veteran Deo Russo’s (Gino Anthony Pesi) morning routine. Alarm clock, blending himself some kind of powdered breakfast smoothie, washing the glass, teeth-brushing, wardrobe consideration, dressing, apartment-leaving, walking, walking, walking, walking, subway-taking, subway-taking, subway-taking, and so on and so forth.
And yet here’s the thing: even though I was bored out of my mind, I found I was still watching. I asked myself, “Why are you still watching? Oh yeah, I’m on the job.” But I might have still been watching regardless. It’s interesting that Boll somehow manages to accomplish this. More on this later.
When Russo arrives at the precinct, his commanding officer (Tia Dionne Hodge) informs the antisocial detective that he has a new partner, and that she might be a breath of fresh air for him. She also hints that a romance might bloom between them, which seems like quite an odd and rabidly unprofessional thing for a law enforcement officer to tell her underling.
And so the single, introverted detective meets his extroverted, perky new motor-mouthed partner named Angela Dutton (Kristen Renton) who has transferred from Atlanta.
Most of the movie involves these two engaging in stereotypical odd couple banter and arguments, interspersed with two other crime scenes happening simultaneously, elsewhere, that they’re unaware of.
One involves a double homicide, perpetrated by two goons of a larger-fish gangster, and the other involves a man (James McMenamin) who’s locked himself in a bathroom with a bottle of suspicious-looking pills, while his significant other (Brandi Bravo) bangs on the door telling him she knows what he’s up to in there.
Deo and Angela (which mean, uh, “God,” and “Angel”) are of course both connected to these scenes, and we find out how, later.
The movie ends with actual coming attraction signage for a sequel, which had me thinking I’d watched the first episode of a TV series by mistake. But no. It’s just an Uwe Boll movie.
Find something positive to say? Anyone bemused by Boll’s bizarre ability to bungle the basics of storytelling will find lots of entertaining examples in “First Shift.” It plays like it was made by little green Martians in alien film school who made a movie to show what they’ve learned after studying the buddy-cop genre.
Why We Watch Boll Nevertheless
Many of Boll’s movies have seen international theatrical releases. Many bad directors keep low profiles due to direct-to-video releases and one-off theater rentals, but Boll’s work receives huge exposure.Boll’s work typically has high production value. If Boll’s movies looked like they were shot in somebody’s back yard (the way the insufferable Groo’s movies actually are) he would have been railroaded out of Hollywood long ago. But because they look like they have serious money backing them, they give off a whiff of possibly being a mere misfire by an actually decent director. His movies remain watchable because his choices are so out of left field that they leave you looking at the screen like a German Shepherd tilting it’s head to one side, and then the other, trying to figure out what you just saw, and why.
